Iran Removed from Money-Washing List

Service : Economy

TEHRAN, June 2 (ICANA) – Iran has been removed from the list of countries involved in money laundering as the result of measures taken by Tehran against suspicious financial transactions, says an Iranian official.

Thursday, June 02, 2011 10:30:25 AM

Abdolmahdi Arjmandnejad, the general manager of anti-money laundering division of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), said that the CBI is also studying three new anti-money laundering measures and that the banking system will be informed about it after the final ratification of the regulations, Mehr news agency reported.

The new instructions include supervision of foreign costumers of financial institutions, surveillance of foreign political persons receiving banking services and the implementation of anti-money laundering laws by money exchanges.

Referring to the recent meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, he said, “The explaining of measures taken by Iran against money laundering led to the removal of Iran's name from the list of countries involved in money laundering operations.”

In 2009, CBI enforced the Anti-Money Laundering Law to curb suspicious financial transactions in the country.

Money laundering, a key operation of the underground economy, is the practice of disguising illegally obtained funds so that they seem legal.

Moreover, in a major step towards countering money-laundering, the Islamic Republic has teamed up with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to set up a financial intelligence unit to analyze suspicious financial transactions with a view to curbing such crime.

The unit, established in 2010, is collaborating with the Judiciary in investigating suspicious transactions and prosecuting offenders.